Communications

Rome, 5July 2007
 
The annual Focus On meeting was held on Thursday July 5 at the Matteo Ricci conference centre in Rome, for all those who took part in the previous editions of the managerial training seminar entitled "From Technology to Values". On this occasion, the subject was "Corporate Ethics and Ethics in Companies", and the meeting was attended by Finmeccanica's Chairman and CEO, Pier Francesco Guarguaglini, the Co-Director General, Alessandro Pansa; the Central Human Resources Manager, Roberto Maglione; and the head of Training Systems and Knowledge Management, Francesco Mantovani.
 
Other participants included Managing Directors and General Managers of Group companies as well as HR managers.
 
After a brief welcome from Prof. Franco Imoda, rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University, Finmeccanica's CEO Pier Francesco Guarguaglini opened the proceedings with a speech emphasising the essential role of corporate ethics in the culture and managerial style of the Finmeccanica Group. "Creating value," said the Chairman, "always entails a far-sighted view of the company's interests, which must involve not only the shareholders but also the customers, collaborators, suppliers, partners, universities and research centres, as well as international and local organisations."Viewed in this way, corporate ethics becomes the source of best practices, the model for the corporate skills and know-how which form the basis of the Group's organisational aspects.
 
The next speaker was Roberto Maglione who outlined the aims of the day and introduced the participants: Prof. Joaquin Navarro Valls, head of the Vatican Press Office from 1984 to 2006 and currently President of the Advisory Board for the University Campus Bio-Medico in Rome and visiting professor for the Institutional Communications Faculty at the Pontifical University of Santa Croce in Rome, together with Mr Alessandro Pansa from Finmeccanica, Prof. Sergio Maria Carbone, who lectures on international law at the University of Genoa, and Prof. Giulio Sapelli, who lectures on the history of economics and cultural analysis of organisational processes at the University of Milan.
 
Prof. Navarro Valls made some interesting observations on the question of ethics and companies. He was followed by Mr Pansa who focused on the link between ethics and business according to decisions taken, in particular stressing the importance of responsibility, correctness and transparency as cardinal points for virtuous conduct. Next came Prof. Carbone who spoke in more detail about corporate governance and international ethical standards for anti-corruption. Finally, Prof. Sapelli started the discussion on points arising from the speeches.
 
This was followed by comments from participants in the "From Technology to Values Community" and the plenary discussion, with a closing speech by Roberto Maglione.